I am a creature of habit, so I love routines. I have written about my morning routines in the past (in 2014 and in 2016) but I’m constantly making adjustments to it. Life constantly changes, so small changes to our routines can transform the entire day!
For 2018, I am adjusting my work from home mom morning routine a bit. I still like the following SAVERS acronym from Hal Elrod’s book The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM):
S – Silence (i.e. prayer and meditation)
A – Affirmations
V – Visualization
E – Exercise
R – Reading
S – Scribing (i.e. journal writing)
Since my last update, I have made four modifications to my morning routine…
1. Before, I would have my silence (prayer), reading (Bible devotional), affirmations, and scribing after I took my sons to school. Now I get up earlier and do them the first thing in the morning before walking my youngest son to school. It helps that both sons are older and more independent so I don’t need to do as much to help them get ready for the day.
2. I admit that I’m still not great with a set time in the morning for visualization. Instead, I have my vision board hanging in my bathroom and I look at it while I’m brushing my teeth and getting ready for the day
3. Another thing that has changed is that I don’t exercise in the morning. Since I have been doing intermittent fasting, it just “feels” better to do my workouts later in the day before dinner. (I do the time-restricted feeding version where I primarily eat between noon and 8 pm.) I know that there are many benefits to working out in the morning but I think that walking to and from school – especially on cold days – is enough to get my blood flowing physically. If I find myself starting to be inconsistent with my workouts due to the new time, I’ll switch them back to the mornings.
4. The last changed thing is that I stopped listening to podcasts in the morning. Before, I would listen to them while I was walking back home from dropping the kids off at school and while I straightened up before starting my workday. What I noticed though is that I wasn’t giving myself time for uninterrupted thinking. While it’s great to learn from others, it’s equally (if not more) important that we give ourselves time to come up with our own thoughts and opinions. I still love and listen to podcasts though. I just listen to them later in the day – after listening to myself!
So far, these little refinements to my morning routine have been really helpful. Small things can be so powerful! Could it be time for you to tweak your morning routine too? When was the last time that you altered your morning routine? Does it still fit your current aspirations? Is there anything that you could adapt in order to set you up for even greater success in the various areas of your life? If so, don’t be afraid to change your routine. It could change your life…in a great way!
I really enjoy learning about other people’s morning rituals too. If you want to share yours, then that would be great. You can simply send me an email ([email protected]) letting me know how you begin your day. Thanks!
